A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to physiological conditioning and training of people desirous of becoming proficient in athletic games. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for aiding beginning basketball players in acquiring motor skills needed to accurately launch or “shoot” a basketball into a distant basket.
B. Description of Background Art
The game of basketball, as well as other athletic activities, requires a particular set of human motor skills for a person to achieve a reasonable level of proficiency at playing the game. Since the goal of a basketball game is to score a maximum number of points by players' launching or shooting a basketball from a location on the playing floor into a basket, acquiring shooting skill is an essential goal of a beginning basketball player.
Usually, a basketball is launched towards a basket by grasping opposite sides of the ball between the palms of a player's hands, with the forearms retracted upwardly and rearwardly towards the shoulders of the player to thus flex the elbow joints into laterally spaced apart, generally parallel, V-shaped configurations. One forearm, such as the right forearm of a right-handed player, is twisted inwardly slightly towards a vertical longitudinal center plane of the person's body, to thus position the palm of one hand against the rear side of the ball. The hand contacting the rear surface of the ball, called the shooting or launch hand, is then thrust forward, thereby unbending the shooting arm elbow to a more generally straight, forwardly pointing configuration, and thus launching the ball into an upwardly and forwardly curved, arc-shaped trajectory.
Just prior to launching a basketball as described above, the player's other hand, referred to as the guide hand and being the left hand in the case of a right-handed player, is positioned in a generally vertical position, pressed lightly against the left side of the the left, guide hand, desirably is maintained on the ball until it is thrust forward from the finger tips of the right, launch hand. Maintenance of a guiding force on the ball until it is launched ensures that the azimuthal launch angle determined by the player to be aligned with a distant basket will be maintained.
However, in practice, it has been found that beginning basketball players routinely make a common mistake which results in unsatisfactory shooting performance in basketball, as well as other sports. Specifically, beginning basketball players often fail to follow-through in shooting a ball towards a basket. Thus, it is a common tendency of a beginning basketball player to prematurely drop the guide hand before a ball has been launched forward away from the tips of the launch hand. This premature removal of a lateral guiding force by the guide hand frequently results in the launched ball deviating left or right from an intended trajectory, and therefore resulting in a shot which deviates left or right of the basket centerline.
In apparent recognition of the problematic lack of follow-through of the guide hand displayed by beginning basketball players, a number of devices have been disclosed which are intended to aid beginning basketball players in learning how to accurately shoot a basketball into a basket. The devices include Okerlin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,204, Blevins, U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,652 and Goeble, U.S. Patent Application No. 2008/0214330, all of which disclose devices for maintaining a basketball player's hands in close proximity while making a practice shot. Chrystal, U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,160 discloses a teaching device for facilitating an orientation of a person's hands prior to performing a task such as catching a ball. Stanisic, U.S. Pat. No. 7,381,140 discloses a tennis teaching instruction aid which includes wrist bands for encircling the wrists of a user and an umbilical that fits between the wrist bands to maintain the hands at a maximum distance. Baxter, U.S. Pat. No. 6,846,254 discloses a breakaway sports training device which includes a pair of wrist straps connected by a strap which has a breakaway attachment means that enables the wrists to be freed from constraint at a predetermined breakaway tension.
The present invention was conceived of to provide a basketball shooting training aid which is effective in performing muscle memory habit conditioning for the purpose of achieving proficiency in shooting baskets, and which overcomes certain limitations of prior art devices.